VIP Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum Guided Tour
Recommended by 92% of travellers
Badge of Excellence
Rome, Italy
- 1 to 3 hours (approx.)
- Mobile ticket
- Offered in: English
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Overview
Most tours of Ancient Roman ruins offer one sightseeing option or, at most, two. This tour option offers different packages to explore the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Choose the package that best suits your travel plans, whether it's the small-group option, access to the arena floor or underground dungeons, or an express-length exterior stroll around the Colosseum to capture photos.
- Learn far more than you would on your own by visiting with a guide
- Upgrade to Arena Floor access that is usually restricted
- Check off plenty in a matter of hours—without committing to a full-day of sightseeing
- Choose from different tour options and lengths to suit your schedule
Why Travellers Choose This Tour
A selection of upgrade options makes this far more flexible than standard Colosseum tours.
What's Included
- Admission to the Colosseum, Palatine Hill & Roman Forum (if option selected)
- Admission to the Colosseum Arena Floor (if option selected)
- Colosseum entry ticket and reservation fee included (€18–€24 value)
- Expert storytelling from a licensed historian guide with headphones provided
- Personalised, group experience offering top-rated value and comfort
- Access to the arena floor (unless selected, available for an additional fee)
- Food and Beverages
Meeting and Pickup
Meeting point
- Arch of ConstantineP.za del Colosseo, 00184 Roma RM, Italy
Please meet your guide in front of the Arch of Constantine. They will be holding a yellow Carpe Diem Tours flag or sign. Arrive at least 15 minutes before the tour start time. Late arrivals unfortunately cannot be refunded.
End point
- Roman Forum00186 Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Italy
The tour will either finish in the Roman Forum or the Colosseum, depending on which monument we start with, where you will be left to either leave or spend more time exploring the area.
Itinerary
1
Colosseum
1 hour • Admission Ticket Included
2
Palatine Hill
30 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
3
Roman Forum
45 minutes • Admission Ticket Included
Additional Info
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Pushchair accessible
- Near public transportation
- Most travellers can participate
- Please provide the full names of all travellers when booking. Tickets must match these names; failure to present a voucher with all travellers’ full names at the ticket office may result in denied entry to the Colosseum and Roman Forum.
- Each traveller must present a valid passport or ID matching the name provided at booking for entry to the Colosseum and Roman Forum.
- Tour order may vary: we will start with either the Colosseum or the Roman Forum/Palatine Hill depending on ticket times.
- Colosseum admission is free on the first Sunday of each month. Tours are discounted on these days.
- Want an upgrade? Check out these other options: VIP Colosseum Tour (12pax), Colosseum Express Arena Tour (24pax)
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 24 travellers
Supplied by
Cancellation Policy
You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance of the experience for a full refund.
Traveller Photos
Reviews
4.7
based on 1,762 reviews
Sort by: Most recent
Interesting. Would book again to skip the entry line. Tour would have been great in another town, but I was spoiled by so many hilarious and fascinating guides in Rome. This was merely adequate.
Check in process a waste of time. Tour guide very animated and engaging but low on useful information.
The meeting place was easy to find and our guide, Deborah, was pleasant, friendly and very knowledgeable. We navigated through the areas about as easily as would be possible. Deborah knew all the best spots for photos and made sure we had enough opportunities to get the pictures we wanted. Highly recommend this tour.
Response from Host, Oct 2026
Hey Frank! So glad to hear you had a great time with Deborah and found all those perfect photo spots. Thanks for the high recommendation—hope you captured some amazing memories!
What a great tour! Paolo shared so much great insights into Roman life, the Coloseum, gladiators, and everything in between. Could not have asked for a better experience!
Response from Host, Oct 2026
Hey Melissa! Thrilled to hear you had such a fantastic time with Paolo — he's amazing at bringing Roman history to life, right? Thanks for sharing your joy with us!
The communication and notifications on our up coming tour was very helpful. Our tour guide was amazing. Highly recommend using them. Grigori I think was his name, was very knowledgeable and friendly. Thank you for a great experience.
The Anderson’s
Response from Host, Oct 2026
Hey Denise! So glad you loved the updates and found Grigori as fantastic as we do. Thanks a ton for recommending us; can’t wait to see you again in Rome!
Our guide, Andy, was amazing. Really appreciated his wealth of knowledge regarding our tour. His sense of humour was appreciated.
Response from Host, Oct 2026
Hey James! Thrilled to hear you enjoyed Andy's blend of knowledge and humor. He's quite the gem, isn’t he?
This does require a lot of walking and climbing stairs. Also hills. Dusty and dirt path ways so be prepared. Wear a hat to help with sun shade. DANIELE did a fantastic job giving us a lot of history. Easy to understand. This our third time touring the Colosseum and definitely the best.
Response from Host, Oct 2026
Hey CynthiaF! Sounds like Daniele really brought the Colosseum to life for you, even after a few visits. Thanks for the heads-up about the hat—great tip for future explorers!
Nick was a fabulous guide and very knowledgeable. He made the experience amazing and everyone loved him and the tour.
Response from Host, Oct 2026
Hey Michelle! So glad to hear that Nick made your tour amazing and that everyone had a blast. I'll pass along your kind words to him!
Very well done our tour guide Marzi was exceptional. Very knowledgeable on the Rome and the Vatican.
I was very disappointed in our guide. Her commentary was flat and boring. How is that possible at three amazing locations- The Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine hill. The lines were atrocious but a good guide knows how to fill the wait time with great stories. Our guide only talked the bare minimum so we stood around in silence half of the time.
Response from Host, Oct 2026
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We’re sorry to hear that the commentary did not meet your expectations, particularly during the waiting periods. We understand that a knowledgeable and engaging guide plays an important role in making the experience worthwhile, especially at sites as significant as the Colosseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill.
While entrance lines and security procedures are outside our control, we agree that the waiting time should still be used effectively. We take your comments about the limited commentary and lack of engagement seriously and will review the experience with our team to better understand what happened and ensure our guides provide the informative and engaging experience guests expect.
Our guide was very informative. She definitely knew her material. I took a photo of her ID, but it’s blurry- so I don’t know her name. My husband thought that she talked too much. I guess I agree a little, but I also learned a lot!
The meeting point was really chaotic and not well organized.
The tour was good - I felt like we saw a good portion of Palatine Hill and the forum. In the Colosseum, the tour guide only brings you to the arena floor and then the rest of the Colosseum is on your own.
Great. Polina did a wonderful job. Very knowledgeable and informative. We learned so much about the coliseum and the other ruins in the area. She is very knowledgeable about the history of Rome.
Amazing! We had a great guide named Mariana. Be prepared for a lot of walking and steps…but worth it to see everything.
The Tour with Kseniia (Sushi) was excellent. She was calm during the stressful entry procedure. Kept us informed every step of the way. Very knowledgeable with a good sense of humour. Highly recommend this tour and guide.
Overall, it was educational and very beautiful. Our guide was knowledgeable but kind of a spaz. She lost two people during the tour and would get really into her history and walk a little fast for a crowded area.
If you do the tour, do it really early or late. Middle of the day is just too crowded and the pickpocketers are out in full force.
The history was so incredible. Our guide Colita was very knowledgeable and entertaining to make the excursion a true treasure.
Wonderful and informative tour. Our guide Karina was fantastic. Highly recommend and would definitely go again!
a little difficult to understand the guide. Hard for English speaking visitors. but she was very nice and informative (what I could understand). lots of steps and rough rerrain
Thank you Kopal for an amazing tour! Learned a lot and it was great to go right into the busy Colosseum!
Our leader was Nick and he was wonderful! Great sense of humor, excellent grasp of an enormous amount of information. Definitely have to be able to handle stairs and rough paving, we were lucky to start early and have a bit of a break in the high temps Rome had been experiencing.
It is wonderful! There are a lot to f steps and walking but very doable. Try to go in the morning when it is cooler.
Great tour to book when you are in Rome and would like to learn about the Colosseum and its history. Our tour guide was excellent! Highly recommend!
This was an amazing experience. The skip the line tickets are well worth it. So many amazing views and a great tour guide. My eight-year-old loved learning about the historical facts.
One of the best tours we had while in Rome! Easy link up at the arch-professional staff and the guide was A+++! Worth every penny to get an in depth look at the sites in and around the colloseum. So thankful we made the decision to take this tour!!
Maria was so knowledgeable and made this experience more than a tour. I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would in the heat, 3 hours flew by! Highly recommend
Absolutely wonderful tour with Nicoli. Extremely knowledgeable about everything we saw at all 3 sights. Learned more than I ever expected.
I thought it was very organized. The tour guide I can’t recall her name as excellent. She was so passionate & Knowledgeable about all the sites we toured. It was just a lot of waiting on lines in hot weather but not something the tour leader had any control over. She always tried to have us in shade when explaining things to us.
Our tour guide, Mariana was great! Very knowledgeable and very funny. Kept us moving and answered all our questions. Would recommend!
We had an excellent tour of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum with Georgia from Carpe Diem Tours. Georgia was outstanding.
From the beginning, she did a remarkable job navigating our group through the very large crowds at the Colosseum. She was firm when she needed to be, but always polite and professional, which made what could have been an overwhelming experience feel organized and manageable.
Her knowledge of Roman history was exceptional. She clearly knows the subject extremely well and was able to bring the history of the Colosseum, Palatine Hill, and Roman Forum to life rather than simply reciting facts.
I also had an unexpected issue with my ticket. Despite being a fairly organized traveler, I had booked it using my nickname, while my identification showed my full legal name. As we discovered, the Colosseum takes the requirement that the name on the ticket match the visitor’s identification very seriously, and there was a real possibility that I would not be permitted to enter. Georgia immediately stepped in and handled the situation calmly and professionally. Her assistance navigating the issue was enormously appreciated and ultimately allowed us to continue with what became a wonderful experience.
Just as importantly, Georgia was genuinely considerate of everyone in our group. She paid attention to whether people needed to use the restroom, take a short break, or simply have a moment before continuing. Despite covering a tremendous amount of ground, we never felt rushed or ignored.
Georgia was knowledgeable, courteous, organized, and an absolute pleasure to spend the tour with. She turned what could have been a stressful start into a memorable day in Rome. I would highly recommend both Georgia and Carpe Diem Tours.
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per personWas USD 78.92(-5%)
up to 24 hours before the experience starts (local time)
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